This article provides latest ADO.

Net Interview Questions and Answers for dot net developers with
sample code and detailed explanations on Dataset, Datareader, Datatable, DataView, Connection
object, Transactions, SQL Commands, Data adapter, Data Providers, Locking, Connection pooling
and Connection String.

1) What is ADO.NET ?

ADO.Net is one of the major component of .Net Framework, which is designed to connect to
databases like Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, MS Access etc. and work with data stored in them.

2) Explain Generic Features of ADO.Net ?

ADO.Net provides in built classes to connect with Databases like Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, MS Access etc.
Provides in built classes to do data manipulation operations like Insert, Update, Delete and Select data.
Provides data providers for specific databases for efficient interactions with DB. Example - ODP.Net provider for
Oracle.
Tight integration with XML
Provides functionality to combine data from different data sources
Disconnected Data architecture for better performance

3) What are the important features of ADO.Net 2.0 ?

Bulk Copy Operation from one Data Source to another Data Source

Batch Update To update n no of rows in a database table in a single call from a program thus by avoiding
round trip to database.
Data Paging To read data from a certain index
Connection Details To get detailed info about connections like buffer information, cursor details etc.
DataSet.RemotingFormat Property To make dataset serialized in Binary
DataTable's Load and Save Methods For XML interactions.

4) What are the namespaces used in ADO.NET for data access ?

Namespaces used to access database are

System.Data Contains all generic data access classes

System.Data.Common Contains classes which are shared / overridden by data providers
System.Data.OleDb - OLE DB provider classes used to access database such as Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and
MS Access.
System.Data.SqlClient Contains classes for SQL Server
System.Data.SqlTypes Contains SQL Server data types

5) What are major difference between classic ADO and ADO.NET ?

ADO

ADO have recordset

ADO objects communicate in binary mode
ADO supports mostly connection oriented models
Since ADO derives information about data implicitly at run time based on metadata, it is an expensive process.
Only Client Side Cursors are allowed in ADO.

ADO.Net
 ADO.Net have Data Adapter and Data set
ADO.NET uses XML for passing the data
ADO.Net works in Disconnected manner
By leveraging known meta data at design time, ADO.Net provide better runtime performance and more
consistent runtime behaviour
ADO.Net Support both client side and server side cursors

6) What are the two fundamental objects in ADO.NET ?

Fundamental Objects of ADO.Net are DataReader and DataSet. DataSet Object can have a set of
DataTables and relationships between these tables. DataSet can be used in disconnected connection
with DB. DataReader is used to read the read only data from a database.

7) What is difference between dataset and datareader ?

DataReader is used to fetch data from a database in a much faster way. Since the rows are fetched one
at a time, load on the network will be low. Since DataReader is read only, transactions are not
allowed. Since it support forward only data iteration, random data fetch is not supported.

DataSet is an in-memory representation of a table in a database. Dataset takes lot of application

memory compared to DataReader. It is slower compared to DataReader. But user can do transactions
using DataSet. It also support querying.

8) What is the use of connection object ?

Connection Objects is used to establish a connection between an application and databases like
Oracle, MySQl, SQL Server etc. Once connection is established, SQL Commands like insert, update,
delete and select can be executed. Scope of a connection object can be local or global. If local
connection object is used, it should be closed after SQL commands are executed.

9) Write a sample ADO.Net Connection to SQL Server ?

using System.Data.SqlClient;

try
{
// Open DB connection
string Connection = "server=localhost; uid = UserName ; pwd = Password ; database =
DemoDB";
SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(Connection);
conn.Open();
}
catch ( Exception ex )
{
// Log Exceptions
}

finally
{
conn.Close ( ) ; // Close the connection
}

10) Explain Transactions in ADO.Net ?

When one or more related SQL Commands are executed and if any one statement failed to execute,
we need to rollback the entire related operations that has been executed. In such a scenario,
Transactions are used.
using System.Data.SqlClient;
try
{
string Connection = "server=localhost; uid = UserName ; pwd = Password ; database =
DemoDB";
SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(Connection);
con.Open();

SqlTransaction SqlTx = con.BeginTransaction();

// Execute SQL commands
tx.Commit(); // Commit Transaction
con.Close();